


plate snow

by Miyamon



Category: Xenoblade Chronicles
Genre: Gen, later chapters will have baby shulk and reyn as well!, mostly dunban and fiora centric, there wasn't enough fluff fics about dunban raising fiora
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-15
Updated: 2020-06-15
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:47:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24734134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miyamon/pseuds/Miyamon
Summary: Dunban is not quite 16 yet when the Mechon takes his parents away from him. Left with nothing but his 3 year old sister, he is determined to raise her on his own- and destroy the Mechon. Loosely chronological drabble collection following a young Dunban who's made the decision to care for his younger sister, although he himself is little more than a child.
Relationships: Dunban & Fiora (Xenoblade Chronicles)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 25





	plate snow

**Author's Note:**

> plate snow- a horrible white thing that Fiora named when she was little. (+16 affinity for Dunban)

He remembers celebrating his 15th birthday with his mother and Fiora.

Even though he had insisted he was far too old for something silly like a cake, his mother simply smiled and baked one anyway, stating that a birthday wasn’t a birthday without cake. Fiora, then only 3 years old, had squealed and bounced around the kitchen, tugging on their mother’s apron. That night, Dunban saw the way Fiora’s eyes lit up as their mother lit the candles, and he graciously lets her blow them out. He remembers pushing his slice of cake towards Fiora, as he himself wasn't fond of sweet things. He didn’t think much of it at the time, but he didn’t know that it was going to be the last birthday he spent with his mother.

He’s turned 16 by now, his birthday landing in the days after the Mechon attack that robbed them of their mother.

There was no cake, and there wasn't anything to celebrate. Colony 9 still bustled with the energy to rebuild and start again, but Dunban found himself beginning to think it was pointless.

The Mechon came when he was 12 to kill his father, and again when he was 15 to kill his mother. A shudder runs through him when he realizes the Mechon could just as easily come any day now to take Fiora away. He glances over at his sister from his spot on the park bench. She’s happily playing and picking flowers a few feet away from him, blissfully unaware that their mother is dead. He hasn’t been able to bring himself to tell her quite yet that their mother never made it to the shelter.

That she wasn’t ever going to be coming home ever again.

On instinct, his hands tighten into fists, and he feels a sudden spike of rage. He despises the Mechon. The first day after the attack that took their mother, Dunban is the first one to see the Colonel of the Defense Force amidst the repair efforts.

Two days before he turned 16, he enlists. He is not quite 16 when he also takes sole guardianship over Fiora.

He is not quite yet 16 when he realizes they are all alone in this world.

Suddenly, Fiora comes bounding over to him, flowers in hand, and he finds himself yanked out of his thoughts.

“Look Dunban! Look!!” Fiora holds out a handful of flowers to him. She’s gotten herself covered in dirt in the process, but she’s beaming at him.

He smiles at her. “You’ve found quite a lot!”

She nods. “Mhm! When mum gets back I want to put them in a vase and then put them on the kitchen table!”

Dunban bites his lip. He still isn’t quite sure how exactly to tell her that their mother isn’t coming home. He doesn't know if he’s accepted it himself yet. And he knows for a fact that he doesn’t want to make her cry.

“Dunban? Why are you making that face? Are you sad?” Fiora tilts her head and stares at him, her eyes large and blinking at him with a simple curiosity.

He shakes his head and smiles at her again. He has to remind himself to be careful not to worry Fiora. He’s all that she has now.

He ruffles her hair. “No. I’m just thinking of how you’re all covered in dirt now. You’ll have to take a bath when we get home from the park!” To make her laugh, he reaches out and tickles her, to which she lets out a squeal of laughter.

“EEEEaaah! Okay!! Okay! But I need to get more flowers first. Can you hold these ones?” With her face pink from laughter, she holds out the mismatched assortment of flowers to him.

“Alright. But don’t take too long. We’ll leave in five minutes.” he says as he gently takes the bunched up flowers from her chubby little hands.

When Fiora skips back to the small patch of flowers, Dunban sighs. His thoughts drift back to the Mechon attack. From Outlook Park, he actually got a good view of Colony 9 and all the damage that happened.

Thankfully, the destruction to buildings was rather minimal this time. Dunban remembers the day after the the attack, when he decided to see the Colonel and enlist. The Colonel had looked him over and waved him off with a hand. “Be here tomorrow. 8am sharp. Or I’ll make you run a thousand laps around this Colony.”

It had been a week since that day. He had now since turned 16, and training for the Defense Force mostly meant helping with reparations around the Colony. A friend of their mother’s watched Fiora during the day until he could pick her up, and while he loathed relying on others, he knew he couldn't do training with Fiora strapped to his back.

Today, however, he’d been given a day off, and unsure what to do with himself, he had decided to bring Fiora to the park to play. Being in their house without their mother felt almost unbearable for him. Fiora, of course, was delighted to be going to the park with Dunban, and had raced up the stairs to get there.

He glanced at her now, gleefully rummaging around looking for flowers and other little odds and ends.

“Dunban! Dunban! Look!” Dunban snaps to attention when Fiora scampers over to him. In her hands is odd little white…. _thing_?

He tilts his head at her questioningly. “What is it, Fiora?”

The little girl blinks at him, confused for a moment and examines the thing in her hand. “Um.. It’s…Plate snow!” She holds it out to him again, seemingly proud of her naming. “It’s for you!”

Dunban can’t help it when his face cracks into a smile as he receives it from her. “Well, thank you. I love it.” Whatever _it_ is, anyway. 

It's at that moment that Dunban notices the sun beginning to set, and he decides its time they headed home. “Fiora, it’s getting late. You're getting tired aren't you? We should get back."

This (predictably) causes her to stamp her feet into the ground and whine at him, but it only serves to prove Dunban’s point- if she was this cranky over leaving the park she must certainly be getting tired.

“C’mon. I’ll give you a ride down the stairs.” He says, getting down on a knee so she can climb onto his back. Fiora, tempted with the offer of a piggyback ride from her brother happily complies, and nestles into his back.

As the sky continues to turn a lovely orange as the sun sets, Dunban carefully makes his way down the stairs from Outlook Park. He's beginning to suspect Fiora has fallen asleep since she's been awfully silent when he feels Fiora’s little fists grip the back of his shirt.

“Dunban, where’s mum? When is she coming home?” her voice sounds so small, so quiet, and scared. 

Dunban continues to walk, silent. He isn’t quite sure how to respond. He knows Fiora knew there was an attack, but he doesn’t have the heart to explain it to Fiora that she can’t see their mother anymore. That the Mechon took her away from them.

He forces out the most cheerful voice he can manage. “Let’s get home first, shall we? I wonder what we'll have for dinner?"

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! I just found it awfully sweet that one of the objects to that Dunban really likes is a random little white thing that Fiora named as a child. And I realized there was barely any family fluff in this tag... In this fic, Fiora and Dunban's father died soon after Fiora was born (as per Dunban's own words in Chapter 9) and I'm also assuming their mother died when Fiora was still young, but old enough to remember her at least a little. I'm using a Heart-to-Heart between Sharla and Dunban as a reference, where he mentions a keepsake from their mother that Fiora was attached to.


End file.
